A tearful jury today convicted an East Orange woman of killing her ex-boyfriend by running him over with her Lexus outside a bar.

Natasha White, 32, was found guilty of using her vehicle as a weapon to kill Zachary Sanders, a 33-year-old Orange resident and father, nearly two years ago in the parking lot of the Rubicon Pub in Orange. She faces between 30 years and life in prison when she is sentenced.

After a three-week trial and eight hours of deliberations, the jury convicted White on 10 counts, including murder, vehicular homicide, aggravated assault, criminal mischief, possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose, operating a vehicle while her driver's license was revoked, simple assault and other charges. During the verdict, several jurors fought back tears.

Latoshia Renee Richardson, the victim's fiancee and mother of his two children, sobbed in the courtroom after the verdict. Sanders' mother, Betty Sanders, said the burden of her son's death is something she will have to carry the rest of her life.

"I know this won't bring my son back, but let her pay for what she did," Betty Sanders said of White.

Prosecutors said that about 11 p.m. on April 9, 2007, White confronted her ex-boyfriend as he stood outside the bar with his friend Bernard Kelly. White then aimed her car directly at Sanders and hit the accelerator, striking him and dragging his body several feet down the street from the lot, they said. Sanders, who suffered a crushed chest, was pronounced dead minutes later at the scene.

Nine days earlier, at the same location, White had used her vehicle to ram into Sanders' parked Infiniti. White's criminal mischief conviction today related to the ramming of the Infiniti.

"This was a case of a jealous ex-girlfriend who became violent and used her vehicle as a lethal weapon after her relationship with her boyfriend had ended," said Essex County Prosecutor Paula Dow. "Natasha White will now face decades behind bars for such a senseless killing."

Defense attorney Champ Goldman, who said he will appeal the verdict, said he wanted White to testify but she was afraid to do that. Goldman had argued Sanders jumped on the hood of the car and was not run over, making his death an accident instead of a murder.

"She had to explain why she didn't stop the car," Goldman said. "She was scared to stop it. He would beat the (expletive) out of her."

Both sides had presented expert witnesses, each of whom painted a different scenario of what occurred that April evening. Defense witness Sal Fariello, an accident-reconstruction expert, testified that Sanders' pants showed no signs of being scraped on the roadway. He also said the dead man's shoes did not have marks that would indicate he had been hit.

Vehicular homicide expert Arnold Anderson, testifying for the prosecution, said the physical evidence showed Sanders' death was not an accident and the absence of skid marks demonstrated White made no attempt to stop the car.

The prosecution also brought in former Essex County Medical Examiner Alex Xun Zhang who said Sanders died from mechanical asphyxiation -- the car crushed his chest -- and the manner of death was homicide.

Sanders' best friend, Kelly, had testified he was standing next to Sanders in the bar parking lot when the Lexus hit the two men and killed Sanders. The car White was driving hit Kelly's right leg, propelling him over the car's hood and landing him on the other side of it, he said.

Kelly testified Sanders ended up on the hood and White kept driving, even as Sanders banged on her windshield repeatedly and shouted for her to stop.

"His (Sanders) family was very pleased," said Chief Assistant Prosecutor Keith Harvest who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Portia Downing. "They said Zach can rest in peace now."